Tipsheet

Israel Responds to UN's Demands for a Ceasefire

Rebecca Downs
Rebecca Downs  |  October 01, 2024 4:30 PM

On Tuesday, as reports were coming in of Iran's ballistic missiles hitting Israel, António Guterres, the Secretary-General of the anti-Israel United Nations, posted his demands for a ceasefire. 

"I condemn the broadening of the Middle East conflict with escalation after escalation," Guterres posted. "We absolutely need a ceasefire," he also insisted, as if we haven't already heard such a call from the UN so many times before. 

Guterres' post has received approximately 8,000 replies taking issue with his demands. Israel's X account also contributed to the over 1,000 quoted reposts, telling Guterres in no uncertain terms that they will not give into his demands.

"We condemn your inability to string together a tweet which holds Iran responsible for firing 181 ballistic missiles at 10 million Israeli civilians," the post fittingly read. 

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Matt's also covered how Israel will conduct airstrikes across the region in response to the attack.

Demanding a ceasefire wasn't the only problematic part of Guterres' post. Naftali Bennett, the former prime minister of Israel also took issue with Guterres referring to "the broadening" of conflict, rather than condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran for their aggression against the Jewish State. 

Guterres expressed grave concern about Lebanon earlier on Tuesday, in which he also "appeal[ed] for an immediate ceasefire." His post even spoke about how "the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon must be respected."

Such a post also received some less than friendly responses, with many also reminding about what a failure the UN has been on this issue. 

The timing was particularly poor on such a post, as the IDF was posting about sirens going off not long after Guterres was posting about Lebanon. Further, there were reports earlier in the day about the White House being aware of Iran preparing to "imminently" attacking Israel with ballistic missiles.

For all of his demands, especially to do with Lebanon, Guterres might want to take it up with Hezbollah. In addition to invading Lebanon on Monday, Israel has been taking out Hezbollah terrorists for weeks, including just after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the UN last Friday, in a move that was purposefully meant to give the terrorists a false sense of security. 

The UN's X account has reposted Guterres and doubled down on concerns for Lebanon and with calling for a ceasefire, posting and reposting about Lebanon no less than four times on Tuesday.

A pinned post from the UN, posted earlier on Tuesday, points out that "civilians always pay the highest price." In Israel on Tuesday, approximately 10 million civilians were the target of Iran's missiles.